Diablo 3 Character Class Speculation...

Okay, we all know it's a big mystery as to when or if Diablo 3 will ever get released, but I've been having some fun speculating about it over the last couple days. There's obviously tons of areas in which to speculate, but the character classes came to my mind first. So far, here's what I thought of in regard to caster/magical characters:

Witch
Obviously, she should be a good witch, not some ugly, old crone (those you would fight later in the game). Picture a frail, pale, young women with dark hair (of course). Skill trees would be curses/spells, transmutation and elemental/physical enhancement. One of the things I thought was weak about Diablo II were the necro bone spells. They're kind of boring to look at, and uncreative in what they do (they're just projectiles, really). The witch character should have an entire skill-tree of spells, that do a great variety of different things. The first few should do simple things, like stun the enemy, disarm them or steal their equipment. The end-game spells should not only put on quite a show, but do insane damage. Perhaps a spell that disintegrates the enemies, or an instant death curse that can only be blocked by a minion or the undead. Throw in a few elemental spells (maybe one for wind, fire, ice and lightning), and you're set. I'd also like to see a skill tree that revolves around transmutation. Imagine turning enemies into far weaker beings (oblivion knight into a chicken for example), and then melee them to death. The more powerful the witch, the weaker the forms she can transmute enemies into, and the longer they'll stay in that form. On the flipside, I think a witch should have the ability to transmute weak items into more powerful items. She, herself, would be able to turn into a bird or bat. Perhaps the third, and final skill tree should include various spells that enhance her movement (faster run-walk, flying, etc), melee abilities (Enchantment, or equivalent) and survival skills (energy shields). What witch would be complete without the ability to fly? For class specific items for the witch, what else but pointy hats or broomsticks?

Shaman
This guy should look like the typical pictish/jungle shaman or medicine man of myth: the mask, bones, the whole nine yards. The summoner of Diablo 3. Skills would be summoning, elemental, and necromancy. For summoning, I imagine animals (gods in this case) similar to those the Druid summons, only taken to the extreme. Instead of grizzly bears and wolves, why not prehistoric animals like saber-toothed cats that do major damage and life leach? A swarm of bugs, that skeletonizes the enemy in seconds? Picture a giant ethereal god-snake with horrific poison damage that also eats enemies (no more annoying enemy revives) as an end-game skill. When you first put points into these two skills (the cat and snake), they're small and not very threatening (the cat would be like a little bobcat, and the snake a normal-sized cobra), but the more you put into them (in other words, sacrifice things to the gods), the bigger they get, the more damage they do, and the more abilities they possess. Elemental skills should be far more broad than what you see with the Diablo II sorc. I'm talking about a rain dance that floods an entire level! For once, a blizzard that's actually a blizzard, or a thunderstorm that's actually a thunderstorm. None of these elemental skills should cause much damage, but they should put the monsters at an extreme disadvantage. When you cover an entire level with snow, the monsters should be sluggish from the cold. Likewise, it would be hard for enemies to attack you if they're getting pelted with hail, or struck down at random by lightning. In this way, the elemental skills would be more for support, rather than direct damage. The necromany skills would come in three seperate levels: the first would be skeleton/bone control (as seen in Diablo II), the second would be revives (using the physical dead bodies of enemies to fight for you), and the third and most powerful would be the utilization of enemy spirits. The ghosts of those you kill could be conjured at once to kill those that are alive. Either maracas, bones, or staves would be the shaman's class specific item.

Seer
The true dark character of the game! This guy would make the necromancer of Diablo II look like Elmo. In appearance, he's an extremely short and ancient old man, with a black robe, and a long white beard down to his toes. Skill trees would be telekinesis, possession, and poison. With telekinesis, imagine throwing enemies into walls, or off cliffs. Using end-game telekinesis skills, the seer would be able to pull the heads off and rip out the hearts of enemies with nothing more than the power of his mind. Possession skills should be the ones that give the seer his name. Imagine gazing into the netherworld to destroy the souls of your enemies. Basically, you could create an ethereal version of every enemy on the battlefield (a safe distance from them) and absorb it. The downside would be demons and undead creatures (which have no souls), and some of these ethereal counterparts could be quite dangerous. But it would be fun to just sit down anywhere and conquer every enemy in that particular level one at a time without having to go anywhere. Other skills in the possession tree would be the ability to take control of the enemies physically. Inside their bodies, you could attack other monsters or kill yourself, when in reality you're just killing them. Poison is pretty self-explanitory, although there would be different types of poison with varying effects. There'd be gaseous poison, liquid poison and solid poison skills available depending on the situation. I'd like to see some acidic poison as well. Imagine the meteor skill as seen in Diablo II, only this time done with acid. It would be fun to burn down an entire level of monsters with chemicals instead of fire. BTW, to go along with gaseous poison attacks, the seer would have the ability to transform into an invulnerable gas cloud in order to travel over short distances. This is similar the sorc's teleport skill, but visually I think it would look more interesting. There should also be a couple of defensive poison skills as well, like acid blood, acid trail or poison gas that leaks from the seer's wounds. Class specific items for the seer would be crystal balls.

That's it for now. Of the three above, which one would you want to play the most? Also, if anyone else has other ideas for Diablo 3 character classes, post them here! I'm working on the melee characters right now, I'll post those eventually.

Ive been thinking of the exact same thing, as you and so far have come up with this character; the alchemist. He could specialize in attacks using various throwing potions. I havent had time to revise or even finish the skill tree, but what I have come up with so far are these skills:

Obviously such things as fulmulating, choking, and posion gas potions, but also things such as,

Smoke bombs: blinds and damages enemies
Dynamite: Explodes a certain radius doing extroidinary damage, this skills could also be used for knocking out certain areas such as pathways in the arcane santuary.
Flash Bombs: stuns, damages and blinds enemies

Also maybe some elemental attacks ie. fire and ice.

however this character would be most strong in the posion skills.

The other character ive thaught of is some sort of a theif, Ive put absolutely no time and effort to come up with any skills for this character, but he would be designed for Pvp and would be the ultimate dueling character.

Ive been thinking of the exact same thing, as you and so far have come up with this character; the alchemist. He could specialize in attacks using various throwing potions. I havent had time to revise or even finish the skill tree, but what I have come up with so far are these skills:

Obviously such things as fulmulating, choking, and posion gas potions, but also things such as,

Smoke bombs: blinds and damages enemies
Dynamite: Explodes a certain radius doing extroidinary damage, this skills could also be used for knocking out certain areas such as pathways in the arcane santuary.
Flash Bombs: stuns, damages and blinds enemies

Also maybe some elemental attacks ie. fire and ice.

however this character would be most strong in the posion skills.

The other character ive thaught of is some sort of a theif, Ive put absolutely no time and effort to come up with any skills for this character, but he would be designed for Pvp and would be the ultimate dueling character.

I've always wanted to see what a metaphysical character class would play like. This character class would be a master of time and space so teleport would be a must...but what if you could also teleport a monster (like say, into a wall or into another time? That could be very useful). They would be able to freeze time, speed it up (for themselves, naturally, or if they wished an opponent to become ancient and decrepit in an instant), or slow it way down (somewhat a cross between Dim Vision, where monsters can't see you, and Decrepify, where monsters can't move very fast). They could also become invisible (again, like Dim Vision...it would have to be in terms of how long and degree of invisibility; I imagine the stress and strain would keep you from doing full damage but you'd also take less if you were detected) or even better, intangible (why teleport when you can walk through walls like Ghosts?) They could also reflect spells and projectiles back at the enemy (kind of like Thorns or Iron Maiden, but the damage returned would be less than with melee damage; in other words, the max damage reflected at level 20 wouldn't be around 500% but about 200%...however, you wouldn't take any damage so this would be VERY useful). The most powerful uber skill would be the manipulation of gravity (a carefully aimed black hole would prove to be the decisive factor in many battles; you could also reverse gravity and either have yourself float on air or have your enemies suspended in mid-air, unable to retaliate). Since gravity and time share some aspects (slowing down enemies or even stopping them), there would have to be a skill system devised to eliminate overlap.

As for weapons and gear, I have envisioned a sort of class specific helm or body armor (probably body armor, b/c that hasn't been done yet...this would only be valid, of course, if the D2 Expansion system of equipment distribution were held over for D3). Obviously, the character would have to be very mana-dependent so they would have very high energy levels (in addition, I would give them high dexterity since they have to be able to safely mingle with the ether) with low strength and vitality (higher strength than the sorceress but lower vitality as well).

Though I doubt there ever will be a D3 (and if there were, I doubt it would resemble D2 in the pure-RPG department), I think a temporal character is at the very least intriguing and at the very most, a deadly opponent.